HOUSTON AND BOSTON - Jason Smith is in a tough spot. He works for a
company he has been asked to boycott.

In an effort to keep weapons out of the workplace, his employer,
ConocoPhillips, is challenging state law and has forbidden workers to
leave guns in their cars in company parking lots. Now, the National
Rifle Association (NRA) is encouraging gun owners to stop buying
ConocoPhillips gasoline.

The boycott is the latest skirmish in an expanding battle over gun
control. Now that many states allow citizens to carry concealed weapons,
the NRA is pushing to eliminate remaining restrictions on where those
guns can be taken. Gun-control groups - and some employers - are
fighting back. The outcome could decide whether more states expand the
rights of licensed owners to carry their guns where they want, despite
recent evidence that workplace gun bans do lower risk.

This issue is simmering in states across the country, says Stephen
Halbrook, a Virginia lawyer who handles many Second Amendment cases.
"But it is in brightest relief in Oklahoma."

That's because Oklahoma is one of only two states with statutes that
specifically prohibit employers from banning weapons on their own
property. (Kentucky is the other state.) ConocoPhillips and several
other employers are challenging the 2003 Oklahoma law in federal court.

"ConocoPhillips supports the Second Amendment and respects the rights of
law abiding citizens to own guns," the Houston-based oil company says in
a written statement. "Our primary concern is the safety of all our
employees. We are simply trying to provide a safe and secure working
environment for our employees by keeping guns out of our facilities,
including our company parking lots."

But gun-control opponents see the issue in constitutional terms.

"This case clearly goes to the very core of the freedom of Americans to
own and travel with firearms in this country," says Wayne LaPierre,
executive vice president of the NRA. If companies successfully block the
Oklahoma law, "it could be a blueprint for thousands of corporations
across this country to declare their parking lots anti-Second Amendment
zones, which could in effect gut 'carry' laws in 38 states and restrict
hunters on every hunting trip." Conceivably, gun owners would have
nowhere to get a sandwich or fill up with gas, he adds.

The NRA will soon have billboards up in 10 to 15 states where
ConocoPhillips has major interests, he says. The billboards will read:
"ConocoPhillips is No Friend of the Second Amendment."

The campaign is part of a larger NRA push to expand the rights of gun
owners to carry their firearms wherever they want, warns Peter Hamm of
the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control group. He
points to two bills backed by the NRA this past legislative session:

• In April, Arizona lawmakers passed a bill to allow concealed handguns
in bars. Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed the bill, angering the NRA but
pleasing many owners of restaurants and bars in that state.

• That same month, Florida lawmakers passed a bill significantly
broadening the circumstances under which a person is allowed to shoot
another in self defense.

For their part, Mr. Smith and other ConocoPhillips employees in Oklahoma
are supporting the NRA. "We are concerned about our rights, and very
disturbed that the company is taking such steps," Smith says. In fact,
there has been no violent incident involving a firearm at the Oklahoma
refinery, he adds, even though "it's pretty common for guys to have
weapons in their vehicles. That's just part of the culture here."

Shootings at refineries are not unheard of. In 1982, for instance, a man
dismissed from his job at a Bridgeport, Texas, gasoline plant, returned
with a rifle and killed his supervisor and wounded a co-worker, then
died in a crash as he fled.

Although workplace homicides have declined dramatically in the past
decade, weapons bans do appear to make workers safer, according to a
recent study. Among hundreds of North Carolina companies surveyed, those
that permitted guns to be brought to work saw a risk of homicide five
times greater than companies that banned guns at work. "We saw a
statistically significant increase in the chances of having a killing in
any workplace that permitted guns," says Dana Loomis, professor of
epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Oklahoma's debate over guns at work got its start in 2002, when
Weyerhaeuser employees were fired for having left firearms locked in
their vehicles outside the plant. The state legislature, in overwhelming
support of the workers, banned companies from restricting workers'
ability to carry legal firearms in their vehicles.

Almost a dozen companies, including ConocoPhillips, filed a federal
lawsuit to block that law. It is still tied up in court, but Mr.
LaPierre says three of the companies have backed out after NRA pressure:
"I think they realized that they had gotten into a gun crusade that has
nothing to do with their bottom line, shareholder value, or the mission
of their companies."

Others disagree.

ConocoPhillips has "an absolute duty to its shareholders to not back
out," says Paul Finkelman, an expert in constitutional law at the
University of Tulsa law school. "Employers have a right to restrict what
their employees do on their premises." And they're still liable if
someone is shot on their property, other legal experts note.

As recently as 1987, just six states had laws mandating that a gun owner
be allowed a permit to carry a concealed weapon, says Ann Kaminstein, a
lawyer and president of DV Initiative, a workplace- violence consulting
firm in Concord, Mass. Today 33 states have such "shall-issue" laws, she
says. And two, Alaska and Vermont, have no laws at all restricting
concealed weapons.

The NRA's boycott against ConocoPhillips probably won't hurt the company
much, experts say. Most of the gas stations carrying the company name
are independently owned. But others say the end result could have a
profound impact. "This kind of thing, if it became a trend, would
definitely deter a lot of companies from adopting weapons-free
policies," Ms. Kaminstein says.
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